Edison's Chargers celebrate their win against Foothill on Friday night. ROSE PALMISANO, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

COSTA MESA – When your punter gets crossed up by a bad snap, and then gets hit when he gets the kick away, and then the ball hits an official in the back of his shoulder and bounces back to your 33-yard-line ...

And when everything else you've tried to do has been buried in a lemon avalanche of yellow flags ...

And when your underdog opponent is kicking field goals into the fog and all you can see is the official holding up his hands ...

Dave White nodded wearily when it was all done.

"Yes, I started wondering," the Edison coach said Friday night on the field at Orange Coast College, after the Chargers tested the limits of 48 minutes to beat back Foothill, 22-16, in a Southwest Division semifinal.

"A lot of things didn't go right. I said, well, maybe we don't deserve it. They outplayed us. But our guys found a way to win. They've done it all year."

The Chargers (12-1) play Villa Park next Friday night in Angel Stadium for the Southwest Division title, and they can't wait to turn that page. Foothill (10-3) led, 16-14, in the fourth on Sean Pihl's third field goal.

"Relief, more than anything," said quarterback Alek Torgersen, who was the punter on that wacky play that put Pihl in line for his second field goal. "But I thought we'd pull it together because that's what we do.

"The penalties were tough to overcome. It seemed like we were starting 10 yards back from where we should have, all night. It's hard to get first downs when it's first and 20. And I've never seen anything like that punt. It was ridiculous.

"But Foothill played a great game. I train a lot with Jack (Gilchrist, the resourceful Foothill quarterback) and I know what kind of player he is."

White and Foothill coach Doug Case are friends as well.

"He put in some extra stuff," White said. "He put extra guys in the box, played a lot of man coverage, dared us to pass. They got a lot of pressure on Alek. He did a great job.

"And then it was so tough to see, with the fog, that it was tough on our receivers. We have to play better, but we're happy to get out with a win."

The first half was foggy and so were the Chargers. Penalties torpedoed one drive, an interception by Foothill's Julian Moss set up a touchdown pass from Gilchrist to Jarrell Moss that put the Chargers down, 7-0.

Edison later tied it, and when it downed a punt on the 1-yard-line with six seconds left, the Chargers crowd edged forward on its benches. Gilchrist couldn't take a knee here — he would be in the end zone. One running play went nowhere, and Edison called a timeout to set up a possible safety.

Except Trenton Aschoff jumped offside and allowed Gilchrist to kill the clock on the next play, to give White a chance to clear some heads at halftime.

But when Edison needed it, it came up with a typical, slam-bang, three-play, 40-yard drive, fueled by two long runs by Elijah Herrera behind Derek Baljeu's lead blocking, and Donald Rice put it away with 1:40 left. Then Donald Reyes picked off Gilchrist's final pass.

Just three years ago, Edison was sloshing around in the big stadium, losing the Pac-5 championship to Servite, 16-6. Now the Chargers are in the Southwest Division, but White knew Edison's past experiences only went so far.

"When you get this far in the playoffs the games will be just as tough," he said Tuesday.

Again he relied on Edison's defense, which gave up just 64 points in 12 games going into Foothill, and Mater Dei, the only team to beat the Chargers, was the only team to score 20.

"That's our only loss, and we lost to them by six," White said. "With four turnovers. We haven't had that marquee skill guy, like we've had in the past, but I think our line and our defense has been solid."

Edison's defense is a mosaic, but the breakthrough player is Baljeu, who had four sacks in the Sunset League-clinching victory over Huntington Beach.

"He had a foot problem last year so he sort of sneaked up on people this year," White said. "He's another guy that I'm going to have to get on the phone about, to call some college coaches. To me he might be the best defensive player in the county. He's 6-foot-2 and 255 and just makes a bunch of plays all over the field."

You couldn't see all over this particular field, as the gloom settled in and matched White's mood. But Edison kept squinting and searching, until it found Anaheim.

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